Administrative error- LEA
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super anxious mum
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:05 pm
Dear B1963,
The council has no jurisdiction over the allocation of places at this school, so they are saying, since the school in question is an academy. They tell me that they allocate their own places (the academy), but have to coordinate through the council initially. The council is in discussions about how best to proceed, but they cannot force the academy to breach their published admission policy, which apparently your suggestion would mean. The school has told me that my best bet is to appeal, but I feel emotionally the three month wait is pure torture, esp since it was an error on the LAs behalf, not ours. If, however, the council was prepared to hold an appeal in a timely manner i.e., next twenty-eight days that would be a different story--they won't though, instead they have said June possibly July. Thank you for your suggestion.
The council has no jurisdiction over the allocation of places at this school, so they are saying, since the school in question is an academy. They tell me that they allocate their own places (the academy), but have to coordinate through the council initially. The council is in discussions about how best to proceed, but they cannot force the academy to breach their published admission policy, which apparently your suggestion would mean. The school has told me that my best bet is to appeal, but I feel emotionally the three month wait is pure torture, esp since it was an error on the LAs behalf, not ours. If, however, the council was prepared to hold an appeal in a timely manner i.e., next twenty-eight days that would be a different story--they won't though, instead they have said June possibly July. Thank you for your suggestion.
Actually b1963 (same here btw!b1963 wrote:Superanxiousmum, for the solution the LEA should adopt, see my response above.
I know this would only give you approximately a one in five chance, but, as far as I understand it, that was what you would have had in the first place.
) I was thinking of something along the same lines, but didn't know how to express it...you put it very eloquently. Effectively running a process for this one pupil, giving a one in five chance of success, with the school going one over PAN if successful so as not to disadvantage the others on the waiting list. This would put the wronged family in the position they would have been in if the error had not occurred. My only concern was how to ensure that it was done fairly - there would need to be some kind of independent supervision.What always amazes me about procedural changes like this is that nobody ever seems to ask the "what if" questions. If an error occurs in a system where there is a defined set of oversubscription criteria, it's simply a matter of fitting the omitted child into the list depending on how well they meet the criteria. This obviously isn't possible with a random allocation system, but then this LA has presumably never made a mistake before so had no idea how to proceed if one did occur.
Marylou
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familyinthevalley
- Posts: 245
- Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:43 pm
Most children got one of their schools of preference-- we got none,
I am a little confused as to how random allocations work. I had assumed that with random allocation there would be no preference list for parents to fill in because the whole process was random.
From reading your post this does not appear to be the case. Am I right in understanding that parents still put down a preference list and it is from this the schools are allocated randomly? Were you missed off the random allocation for all of the schools you selected and is this why you have ended up with the failing school?
If so then the fact that you have ended up with a failing school appears to be more to do with the council's negligence than random allocation.
I believe random allocations work in this way. Please correct me if I am wrong.
All the people (apart from sen and siblings perhaps?) that apply to a school with random allocations are put into a hat and then names are pulled out at random until none are left. This gives the order for allocations and the waiting list.
It appears that super anxious mum's name never went into the hat in the first place even though they applied for the school. This means they didn't stand a chance for an initial place but it also means that they have no position on the waiting list as that order has already been decided.
It seems that the council don't have any procedures in place to correct their error for both the initial allocation or the position on the waiting list.
All the people (apart from sen and siblings perhaps?) that apply to a school with random allocations are put into a hat and then names are pulled out at random until none are left. This gives the order for allocations and the waiting list.
It appears that super anxious mum's name never went into the hat in the first place even though they applied for the school. This means they didn't stand a chance for an initial place but it also means that they have no position on the waiting list as that order has already been decided.
It seems that the council don't have any procedures in place to correct their error for both the initial allocation or the position on the waiting list.
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super anxious mum
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:05 pm
Dear Alison,
You are spot on. Mum in the valley, I have been given a couple of extra days from the inde, whilst the coucil try to liase with the school re an appeal. They are also consulting their legal team about the possibility of paying the deposit for the inde school and the fee in lieu of notice, if the appeal is successful. Slow, but at least it is progress.
Thanks to you all.
You are spot on. Mum in the valley, I have been given a couple of extra days from the inde, whilst the coucil try to liase with the school re an appeal. They are also consulting their legal team about the possibility of paying the deposit for the inde school and the fee in lieu of notice, if the appeal is successful. Slow, but at least it is progress.
Thanks to you all.
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familyinthevalley
- Posts: 245
- Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:43 pm
Wow, you have had some good luck their with your council considering paying the deposit. An unexpected result in this climate, and one where it is hard to prove whether or not you would have got a place if you had been included in the "prize draw".
I know it was tough that you did not get included the in the draw (did this happen to anyone else?) but what would you have done if you were one of the four out of five that did not get a place? It's very disappointing, but hard to prove your "loss". I wonder why the Council even told you. They probably won't tell anyone the next time they do this!!
What else was on your CAF? Have you been allocated one of these? Are you going on waiting lists and appealing to the schools on your CAF if you are not happy with the one you have been allocated, and to any other schools you are interested in even if they were not on your CAF?
I would think if you are not doing this, it shows that you were going to go for the independent school if you had been included in the "prize draw" and did not win. In this case, I would have thought the Council's legal dept would not cough up without a bit of a fight. Maybe just a negligible sum to make you feel a bit happier and save them some time having to discuss it with you.
I know it was tough that you did not get included the in the draw (did this happen to anyone else?) but what would you have done if you were one of the four out of five that did not get a place? It's very disappointing, but hard to prove your "loss". I wonder why the Council even told you. They probably won't tell anyone the next time they do this!!
What else was on your CAF? Have you been allocated one of these? Are you going on waiting lists and appealing to the schools on your CAF if you are not happy with the one you have been allocated, and to any other schools you are interested in even if they were not on your CAF?
I would think if you are not doing this, it shows that you were going to go for the independent school if you had been included in the "prize draw" and did not win. In this case, I would have thought the Council's legal dept would not cough up without a bit of a fight. Maybe just a negligible sum to make you feel a bit happier and save them some time having to discuss it with you.
Hi
If an admin error was made and you weren't include in the random allocations then they have several options
1. Try can class you as a late application.
2. Withdraw all allocations and re-allocate all places.
3. Make an exception and go over PAN in order to fix the error.
They've already tried the easy Option 1, They can't or won't try Option 2. So the only other Option is 3.
My DS's infant school had to go over PAN, when I managed to prove that an error had been made with a distance calculation. They calculate distance in miles and then convert then into KM. The other child distance wasn't converted into KM, so there distance looked shorter. The council finally apologized for the error and went over PAN for the one year ( or until a child moved). I still have the letter!.
Good Luck
If an admin error was made and you weren't include in the random allocations then they have several options
1. Try can class you as a late application.
2. Withdraw all allocations and re-allocate all places.
3. Make an exception and go over PAN in order to fix the error.
They've already tried the easy Option 1, They can't or won't try Option 2. So the only other Option is 3.
My DS's infant school had to go over PAN, when I managed to prove that an error had been made with a distance calculation. They calculate distance in miles and then convert then into KM. The other child distance wasn't converted into KM, so there distance looked shorter. The council finally apologized for the error and went over PAN for the one year ( or until a child moved). I still have the letter!.
Good Luck
